Living Intentionally - Scrap Your Priorities (Part Deux)

Living Intentionally - Scrap Your Priorities (Part Deux)

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. —Stephen R. Covey

IF YOU’RE READING this book and know in your heart you’re not living intentionally, there’s an excellent chance that your priorities are out of whack. Assess your situation to determine what self-imposed duties are robbing you of joy. Then develop a vision and a plan to get to the place where you’re experiencing life, not just moving from task to task. It’s a destination worth planning for, and if you won’t listen to your significant other, maybe you’ll take a tip from your girlfriend (me).

Following are just a few of the priorities I scrapped when I was raising children, building a career, and dealing with a three-hour daily commute:

Exercise. I gained fifteen pounds as I climbed the corporate ladder. I sacrificed a firm fanny for a firm foundation for my career.

Dinner. To complement my healthy lifestyle of no exercise, we picked up fast food two nights a week. Not an organic vegetable on the table, but we enjoyed our meals together at the kitchen table every night. Spinach was sacrificed for quality time with the family.

Laundry. I bought pink towels for Shauna and blue towels for Scott and taught them both to do their own laundry at the ages of eleven and fourteen. If they didn’t wash it, they wore it dirty. Saturday became a fun day, not a work day—and no one turned me in to Child Protective Services.

Bible study. I traded my daily Bible study for Christian CDs and books on tape during my long commute, to gain thirty precious minutes of sleep. I’m pretty sure Jesus still loved me.

Continued self-development. My continued learning consisted of helping with science projects, slogging through eighth-grade algebra, and keeping up with the teen lingo. Self-development was sacrificed for self-preservation.

So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. (1 Peter 1:13)

You’re in the ring, sweat dripping from your brow. You feel the blow. Are you down for the count? It might be time to throw in the towel.